Copyright © 2013 by Audrey W.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

CHAPTER ONE

Elsa's maidservant, Brita, could see that the beautiful yet terrifying winter was beginning to thaw. She could see it in the drops of water that turned her fingers slick when she ran them against the ice balustrade. She could see it in the blooming of tiny pink petals from the frozen, gritty dirt. She could also see it in the way Elsa paced the empty marble floors of the castle, waiting impatiently for Anna to return from her honeymoon in spring.

"Thank you, Brita," Elsa waved away her food, "but I'm not hungry."

"But your highness! Surely you must eat some-"

"No, no," Elsa drew some documents into the table, "Maybe later."

"You've been working all day-"

"I said NO!"

Elsa's voice resounded in the cavernous room, echoing off the walls, harsh and piercing to her own ears. At the same time, an explosion of frost and snowflakes shot from her splayed fingertips, turning the air chilly. The servant Brita stumbled back a few steps, her face white with shock. Elsa gasped at her outburst and lowered her head into her hands. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, everything is just so messed up...there's so many things to do, not enough time, and Anna's not around..."

Brita nodded in understanding. Even during the years when Elsa had ignored her, Anna had been a constant ray of sunshine, emitting an aura that Elsa unconsciously felt better around. Elsa breathed a sigh of relief. She had to learn to control her temper, she chided herself, her fingers white as they gripped the table. It won't do to lose more people in your life.

The atmosphere in the castle that day was unbearably tense. Elsa could feel it in the pit of her stomach, a roiling mass of fear and unease that grew larger with every passing second. Her pen slipped roughly on the fresh piece of parchment, and she groaned, rolling it neatly into a ball and chucking it with more force than needed into the waste paper basket by her side. She couldn't put her finger on what was bothering her. It constantly occupied her thoughts, and she didn't even know what it was! Anna would be shocked to see her like this, Elsa mused, the otherwise poised and collected snow queen a jangle of nerves trying to hold herself together.

Anna. Elsa's mind wandered once again to the person she had been thinking about for the past few days. Was she all right? Was Kristoff treating her well? They would be on a ship, Elsa recalled, sailing East to journey the Delugos Archipelago. Her heart stopped in her chest for a moment. She remembered the day she had received the news, the first time she was too sad and afraid to even cry. The tears wouldn't come beneath her black mourning veil. The day her parents died. She refused to lose her sister that way. Elsa knew her fears were unfounded, but she was unused to being apart from Anna for so long. Add that to the feeling of wary unease in her stomach, and she couldn't function properly.

Standing from the chair, her gown swirling around her, she stalked through the doors and disappeared.

The life of a queen is extremely hard. One must talk to delegates and ambassadors from other countries patiently (which of course is very hard to do), look through thousands of documents, review the current laws and set new, better ones (so as to avoid an angry mob at the palace) and make sure every citizen in the kingdom is adequately provided with. Also, one should be very relieved by the time night falls. In this case, one was Elsa.

An owl hooted jeeringly in the distance, and Elsa slipped with a sigh into her large, cold bed. She had no need for covers; they were folded neatly in the closet, and had been gathering dust there ever since she had remembered. Her eyes closed wearily, her tense fingers loosening, her head sinking slowly into the plush velvet pillows. A shrill noise pierced the night, sending her body into spasms of shock. She bolted rigidly up in bed and sent a wall of ice crashing into the opposite side of the room, crushing part of the desk that rested there. Her breath came out in shallow pants, her narrowed blue eyes scouring the dark room for signs of movement, when she realized it was only the phone ringing.

"Elsa? Elsa! Are you there?" A tinny voice echoed through the receiver. The phone nearly slipped from Elsa's grip.

"Anna!"

Her surroundings were spinning- Elsa gripped the phone tightly, as if the motion would keep Anna closer. She knew that the reception on the islands weren't good, and a phone call was extremely rare.

"Elsa! Can you hear me? I'm just calling to tell you that I'm boarding the ship home!" A carefree flurry of snow whipped up around Elsa, mirroring how she felt inside. "But Elsa, Kristoff won't be with me, he has a job to complete somewhere else. You know, delivering ice... It's cool"-Anna giggled at her own joke- "Can you send someone to fetch me at the docks?"

Elsa didn't care. She'd meet Anna at the docks herself. She remembered visiting the jetty once when she was very little, her sisters hand gripped firmly in hers, the salty tang of seawater in her mouth. A glop of seagull feces had landed right in front of her, and she screamed half in fear and the other half for fun. Anna had screamed happily too, and they'd run around in circles looking out at the blue-green water until their parents scooped them up and brought them back to the carriage. Elsa recalled seeing the giant ships, masts like looming giants, prows long and intimidating. At the time, she loved those ships. Now she didn't anymore.

"Bye, Elsa, I love you-"

Elsa was about to reply when a strange sound echoed from the receiver the phone suddenly went dead, the monotonous beep in Elsa's ear a sudden change from Anna's expressive, light tone. Her heart skipped a beat.

She blamed it on the poor reception.

Brita could see that the beautiful yet terrifying winter was beginning to thaw. She could see it in the droplets of melted frost on the soles of her boots. She could smell it in the fresh new earth that was buzzing with life underneath. And most of all, she could hear it in the way Elsa's soft, sad, flowing voice drifted out from behind her bedroom door.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

A/N: Happy New Year, everyone! 2013 was an amazing year, and occasional flashbacks of all the crazy things I did and all the lovely people I talked to will drift through my mind. I'm betting 2014 is an even better year, though. I can feel it. The potential of what these 365 days will become, a teasing notion right in front of me. Or maybe I'm too dramatic? *self doubt time*

Moving on, I'd like to thank everyone who followed/favourited/left a review- YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT MEANS TO ME. All my life I've been writing yet too afraid to let other people read it, and so I decided to take a chance and post on . I do not regret that decision. You people are so, SO wonderful! Regarding updates: I'll be posting at least once a week, normally twice or, if I'm feeling productive, thrice. Don't worry, I've planned a lot in store for Burnt. Leave a review or pm me if you're satisfied with this chapter?

I love you guys, stay awesome C:

-Audrey